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PaidFamilyLeaveonToday’sSenateBudgetCommitteeAgenda

Legislation (S2528) that would expand benefits under the state’s paid family leave law is scheduled to be considered today by the Senate Budget Committee. The measure was approved by the Senate Labor Committee in May. The Assembly companion bill (A3975) has been reported to the floor and is awaiting a vote by the full Assembly.

Sponsored in the upper chamber by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3), the paid family leave expansion would double the time available for paid family leave from six to twelve weeks and increase the benefit paid during that time to 90% of one’s normal wage, up from 75%. It would increase the ceiling on such benefits from the current 53% of a statewide average weekly wage to 100% of that average. It would retain the current leave available under the state’s Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) for parental leave at 26 weeks but would match the benefit available during that time to the paid family leave levels.

It would also expand the family members whose care would trigger coverage and bar companies with 30 or more employees from dismissing an employee who used the leave.

New Jersey is one of only three states that now have a paid family leave benefit. The others are Rhode Island and California, in addition to the District of Columbia.

Expansion of the state’s paid family leave law was among a number of workplace-related mandates that then gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy campaigned on in 2017.